Parihuela With Tiger’s Milk

Course Meal

Keyword Aji Amarillo, Cayenne Pepper

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Fish Stock (if making your own) 1

Total Time 1 35

Servings servings

Calories 519kcal

Ingredients

For the fish stock (if making your own)

2 pounds heads bones, and skin from some non-oily white fish, and white fish only
2 heaped teaspoons ground sea salt
8 cups water

For the tiger’s milk

3 fresh green cayenne peppers very finely chopped, seeds and all
8 limes squeezed. That number of limes gave me just under a cup of juice.
2 heaped tablespoons fresh ginger root very finely chopped, skin and all. I used a piece of fresh ginger about 3 inches long and ¾-inch thick.
4 cloves garlic peeled and very finely chopped
1/2 ounce fresh cilantro roughly chopped, stalks and all
1 ½ heaped teaspoons ground sea salt

For the parihuela (see note on frozen vs. fresh fish)

4 fresh cayenne peppers 2 green, and two red. Sliced into ¼-inch rounds, seeds and all. The cayennes I used were each about 3 inches long.
¾ pound white fish firm-fleshed. Cut into chunks about 1 ½ inches square. I used monkfish fillets. Alaskan pollack, hake, or cod will be fine, but monkfish is so firm-fleshed that it’s just ideal.
½ pound shrimp or prawn tails. Tail-shell on, and de-veined. The ones I used were each about 3 inches long.
½ pound mussels on the half shell
½ pound calamari heads That weight gave me about a dozen tentacled heads.
¾ pound crab pieces The ones I used were cleaned and quartered, small swimmer crabs — amounting to probably about 4 whole crabs.
2 yellow bell peppers medium-sized, de-seeded and cut lengthwise into ¼-inch slices
2 red onions medium-sized, peeled and cut into 1/3-inch dice
6 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced
1 can peeled and chopped tomatoes 14-ounce can, use juice and all
1 ounce fresh parsley finely chopped, stalks and all
½ ounce fresh cilantro finely chopped, stalks and all
1 cup verjuice or one cup dry white wine. I used verjuice for its fuller, fruitier flavor, but a fairly good, dry, fruity-ish white wine will be fine.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 heaped teaspoons ground sea salt
1 heaped teaspoon ground black pepper
8 cups fish stock from above (make your own) or store-bought
Juice from one medium size fresh lemon

Instructions

Making the fish stock (if making your own)

Place the fish heads, bones and skin into a large saucepan with 8 cups water and 2 heaped teaspoons salt.
Set the pan on a high heat and let it come to the boil. As soon as that happens, drop the heat to low and cover the pan. Now let the pan cook at a gently simmering bubble for 60 minutes, with a few good stirs during its simmer. Done.
Drain the stock through a fine-meshed sieve and set it aside. Discard the bones and all.

Making the tiger’s milk

It’s best to make this while the stock’s simmering. That’ll give the ingredients enough time to fuse their flavors together before you serve it with your parihuela.
Just like the stock, this is also really easy. Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and give the mix a thorough stir. Now let it stand—with the occasional stir—until you’re almost ready to serve your parihuela. At that point, use a fine-meshed sieve to drain the mix into a small serving jug. That’s it! Your tiger’s milk is ready.

Cooking your parihuela

For this, I used a large, cast-iron Dutch oven that was easily big enough to hold all the parihuela’s ingredients.
Set your big pot onto a medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Let the oil heat for a minute or so then stir in the red onion and salt. Drop the heat to low-medium and let the onions cook gently with a few stirs for about 7 minutes. You’re looking to soften the onions—without letting them pick up any color. That’s important for keeping the onion’s sweetness—so, soften them, but don’t brown them.
Now stir in the red and green cayennes, the ginger, garlic, and yellow bell pepper. Let the mix fry gently over that low-medium heat with a couple of stirs for another 4 minutes. You want to pull some aromatic flavor from the chilies, garlic, and ginger, and to just begin softening the slices of yellow pepper. Good. That’s the base of your broth done.
Turn the big pot’s heat to high and stir in the fish stock, tomatoes, verjuice or white wine, parsley, cilantro and black pepper. Let the pot come up to the boil and then drop the heat to low. Check for saltiness right now and adjust to your taste. Once you’re happy with that, you’re ready for some carefully timed poaching of the seafood.
On that low heat, you want the pot to be gently, evenly bubbling before you start adding the seafood.
Add the chunks of white fish and the crab pieces. Give the pot a gentle stir, cover it, and let it simmer away for 2 ½ minutes.
Now, gently stir in the calamari heads, mussels and shrimp. Take a little care with your stirring here, so as not to break the white fish apart.
Cover the pot and let it simmer gently on that low heat for 3 minutes. Done! Remove the pot from the heat, gently stir in the lemon juice, and serve your parihuela straight away.
With large soup bowls already set on the table, I like folks to use a big ladle and help themselves straight from the big cooking pot.
And I think the tiger’s milk is best added a few teaspoons at a time to the top of your parihuela, rather than being stirred right into your bowl. For me, that really highlights the contrasts between the tiger’s milk and the parihuela, and lets you add a little more as you go along. And then add a little more, a little more, a little more.

Notes

A note on the fish (frozen vs. fresh): Frozen really is grand for all the seafood - and that’s exactly what I used once it was all de-frosted and at room-temperature. If you want to use fresh seafood, then that’s fine too.
Now, if you go the frozen route, make sure you allow all the seafood to defrost fully. That matters because if it’s still icy cold it’ll take longer to cook, so about room temperature is the way to go in our recipe.

Nutrition